The Ultimate List of Resources for iOS Animations

Saravanan V

An iOS engineer who has worked with multiple startups across different domains.

Last updated on27 Mar 2024

iOS Animations is definitely a hot topic. I have been into iOS development for 10+ years now and I have rarely seen any blog or post that serves as a definitive list of all resources for iOS animations. This blog post intends to compile all such resources online exhaustively.

Do share your inputs in the comments if you feel we have missed out on anything!

Table of Contents

Open-Source Libraries

There are a ton of useful open-source libraries for iOS animation. Here are a couple I like:

https://github.com/ameizi/awesome-ios-animation

https://github.com/onmyway133/awesome-ios-animation

WWDC

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2017/230/ – Advanced Animations

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/803/ – Designing Fluid Interfaces Animations

UIKit Dynamics

https://raulriera.medium.com/uikit-dynamics-in-the-real-world-ef0dfd924260 – Explains UISnapBehaviour with Tinder card view example

SceneKit

https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/an-introduction-to-scenekit-fundamentals–cms-23847 – Introduces the basics of creating a scene view, creating objects, placing materials and explaining the geometry involved. 

https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/an-introduction-to-scenekit-user-interaction-animations-physics–cms-23877 – Provides high-level information about forming a scene, adding physics behavior like  gravitation, collision detection, animation

ARKit

https://www.appcoda.com/arkit-introduction-scenekit/ – Explains the very basics of laying out the foundation for creating ARKit apps by creating an ARKit scene view and placing objects in it

https://www.appcoda.com/arkit-3d-object/ – Explains the rendering of 3D objects, different formats of supported files by SceneKit for rendering 3D objects and online resources where we can create or buy/ sell these 3D objects

https://www.appcoda.com/arkit-horizontal-plane/ – Explains the placement of horizontal surface/ planes in the real world and creates a sea and a fleet of ships on top of it

https://www.appcoda.com/arkit-physics-scenekit/ – Explains the physics behaviors and animations through the example of launching a rocket ship

SpriteKit

https://swift.unicorn.tv/articles/introduction-to-sprite-kit – Nice introduction and explanation about other entities of SpriteKit on a high level

https://www.appcoda.com/spritekit-introduction/ and https://www.appcoda.com/spritekit-action-sequence/  – Very basic tutorial about getting started with SpriteKit by placing a label and moving it across in an indefinite loop

General

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9248530/confusion-regarding-quartz2d-core-graphics-core-animation-core-images – A Nice explanation about core animations on a high level

https://medium.com/flawless-app-stories/delightful-animations-in-ios-7607e49945eb – Explanation/ Suggestion on how to add subtle animations a.k.a reacting to user actions

https://blog.usejournal.com/ios-animations-uiview-part-1-d94305bee2f5 – A very basic article explaining CGAffineTransforms

https://blog.usejournal.com/ios-animations-coreanimation-part-2-58bb4676710f – Explains the recreation of Flipboard’s Flip animation using CoreAnimation framework APIs

https://blog.vishalvshekkar.com/swift-animator-46d6ef525267 – Explains the wrapper written to overcome code complexities.

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